For words with more than one syllable, we have an intonation pattern within the word. One syllable will have the main stress. This syllable will have a vowel sound which is held longer, has a higher pitch, and a clear vowel tone. Listen to the examples below. Can you hear which syllable has the stress?
applicable |
programming |
familiar |
organization |
Now that we are thinking about the stress in words, how do we know which syllable to stress? While there are a few rules for this, in general we need to memorize the pattern for individual words. A good way to check on a word is to use an online dictionary, such as Miriam-Websters learner's dictionary, and listen to a recording of the word. |
Some languages have consistent stress patterns on words. For example, in Spanish, the last syllable is always stressed, unless the word ends with an s, n, or vowel, in which case the stress in on the second-to-last syllable. If your native language typically stresses the first syllable of a word, you may be likely to have errors on American English words that have syllable stress on the second or third syllables. You can find words sorted by syllable stress for your practice on our full site.